Album Review

For their first album-length excursion in the wake of "I Got You Babe," Sonny & Cher don't tread too far outside the influence of Phil Spector, including covers of "Unchained Melody," "Then He Kissed Me," and "Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love," of which the latter shows off the most appealing elements of each singers' voice. "It's Gonna Rain," which Ahmet Ertegun favored over "I Got You Babe," is a sub-Rascals attempt at white electric soul, while "500 Miles" is Spectorized folk-rock that Sonny carries for one verse and a chorus longer than he should have. The three bonus cuts are as valuable as anything off the original album — "It's the Little Things" and "Don't Talk to Strangers" (not the Beau Brummels tune) are both throwbacks to a slightly older Spector sound, without as much concession to the folk-rock influences of 1965 as the album material. "Hello" is a B-side on which they simply talk, George Burns & Gracie Allen-style, in a distant precursor to the between-song patter that helped get them a television series and a second career.

Biography

Formed: 1964

Genre: Pop

Years Active: '60s, '70s

Sonny & Cher proved one of the magical musical combinations of the mid-'60s and one of the better rock-influenced MOR acts of the early '70s, their wisecracking repartee providing counterpoint to a series of adoring hit duets. Salvatore "Sonny" Bono (born February 16, 1935) started out at Los Angeles-based Specialty Records as a songwriter in the late '50s, responsible for "Koko Joe" by Don & Dewey and "She Said Yeah" for Larry Williams, which was later covered by the Rolling Stones and the...